Skip to main content
2025 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting Main banner
Back

    Matthew D. Smyth, MD

    Professor of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics and Plastic Surgery
    Johns Hopkins All Childrens Hospital

    Matthew D. Smyth, M.D. graduated from Cornell University in 1992 with an undergraduate degree in Neurobiology and Behavior before moving back to California to attend medical school at UC San Francisco. He completed his neurosurgery residency at UC San Francisco in 2002 and then a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at the Children’s Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham in 2003. He was a faculty member in the Department of Neurosurgery at Washington University and St. Louis Children’s Hospital since 2003 and was the Appoline Blair Professor of Pediatric Neurological Surgery at SLCH and Washington University until 2021 when he accepted a position as Chief of Neurosurgery and Professor of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics and Plastic Surgery at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in July of 2021.
    Dr. Smyth has focused his clinical and research efforts on pediatric epilepsy surgery and craniofacial surgery. He helped to create and expand new clinical programs in craniosynostosis and pediatric epilepsy surgery emphasizing minimally-invasive approaches. Both programs substantially increased surgical volumes since 2003, each now performing over 50 operations per year. The program in endoscopic-assisted craniosynostosis surgery began in 2006, and the team has performed over 400 of these operations.
    Under his guidance, the Washington University Pediatric Epilepsy Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital became one of the largest in the region, developing programs in robotic-assisted stereo EEG, minimally invasive robotic-assisted laser ablation, and neuromodulation in children. Dr. Smyth was the Director of the Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Program since 2003 and was appointed Co-Director of the Pediatric Epilepsy Center in 2017 as it underwent a strategic expansion. He has personally performed over 1000 operations for epilepsy in children at SLCH.
    Dr. Smyth’s research has advanced the novel treatment modality of focal brain cooling for the prevention of and treatment of epilepsy without surgical resection, and he holds 7 patents for technologies for cooling devices.
    Dr. Smyth is recognized as a national leader in organized pediatric neurosurgery. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts (h-index = 54), 25 book chapters and has given over 250 local, national and international presentations. Currently he is serving as Chair for the AANS/CNS Joint Section on Pediatric Neurosurgery. He is also active in the American Society of Pediatric Neurosurgeons and will be the President-Elect of the Neurosurgical Society of America in 2024. Dr. Smyth is also a committed educator, serving as Fellowship Director for the St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital Fellowship Programs, and has trained 20 pediatric neurosurgery fellows and over 50 neurosurgery residents.

    Disclosure(s): cranial devices: Consultant (Ongoing); Monteris Medical: Consultant (Ongoing); Zimmer Biomet ROSA: Consultant (Ongoing)

    Presentation(s):